


A Beginner’s Guide to Kayaking

by CaptainStormChaser



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, F/F, Fluff, aquatic distress, kayaks, tw: drowning imagery, unspecified relationship - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 18:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19234369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainStormChaser/pseuds/CaptainStormChaser
Summary: Camp Kirkwall broke out the kayaks, and Isabela shows Merrill the ropes.





	A Beginner’s Guide to Kayaking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Norangutan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norangutan/gifts).



The summer heat of Camp Kirkwall was miserable. No one lingered in the dining hall, fearful of the ovens that ran all day and threatened to roast alive the campers unfortunate enough to be assigned kitchen duty. Bonfires, while traditional, were only sparingly attended, and chocolate for s’mores would be very lucky to survive the time it took to cook a marshmallow. Sleep was nearly impossible, damp campers and counselors alike playing chicken with how little sleepwear their cabinmates would tolerate with the exception of a healthy coat of mosquito netting. Fans and air conditioning were kept to a bare minimum after an event some ten years prior wherein some generators blew out from overuse. The camp’s entire deep freezer of ice cream was devoured that day out of necessity, melty and sticky.

The only reprieve from the heat was the lake.

Long and wide and blue-green like Amaranthine bottle glass, clear enough after a rainfall to see deep within and watch the minnows and trout and sunfish and crawfish and the odd pike swimming all about. The lake—name long lost to Free Marches Parks and Games technicalities and disputes—was an azure haven to the campers on her shores.

The final kayaks were being prepared, a raven-haired beauty holding the last pair hostage at the edge of the dock, trying to goad Fenris into a race to the whole other side of the lake and avoiding Hawke’s attempt to shove her into the water.

Isabela was gorgeous. Gorgeous and confident and wonderful, grinning when she looked up and noticed she was being watched.

Merrill sent up a quick prayer and tightened her life vest. It would be fine. As long as she didn’t fall into the water, she’d be fine. Varric had offered to teach her to swim after the archery tournament was over, so she just needed to get through today.

“Ready to go, kitten?” Bela asked, one foot braced on the dock and the other in her kayak already.

“I haven’t done this before,” Merrill saw fit to mention as Isabela helped her down into the hard shell of her odd little boat.

“It’s easy.” Isabela assured her. “And I’ll be right there the whole time.”

Comforting words, sure, but Isabela had a hand on Merrill’s waist and the other in her hand.

Isabela settled into her kayak, grinning.

Merrill gulped. “It’s canoes that tip, right?”

“Both can tip if you don’t handle them well.” Isabela replied. “But don’t worry about that; let’s have some fun.”

Merrill flushed with embarrassment as Isabela gave such advice as _paddle with your back_ and _feel the kayak and move with it_. The paddle felt awkward in her hands, and Isabela was quite literally going in circles around her.

“It’s like riding a bike.” Isabela said, turning in a gracefully arch to put their kayaks side by side. “Once you get into it, just keep going.”

Merrill supposed she shouldn’t mention that bicycle riding wasn’t her strongest suit.

At the very least, they ended up several lengths from the shore, with the water too deep to see the bottom. So somewhere between a couple of feet and the center of the earth.

Isabela came close, adjusting Merrill’s grip as she’d managed to get the paddle turned over again.

Hawke and Fenris passed some distance away, the former hollering and whooping across the water.

Eyes sparking, Isabela turned to Merrill. “What would you say about me showing off a little?”

With Isabela? Anything. Except... “Will it be...” Difficult? Dangerous? Prone to turning kayaks? “Anything I can help with?”

Isabela grinned at that response. “Just wait here.”

Quick as a bullet, Isabela was taking off, then turning sharply as she grew close to Fenris. The result was akin to a hockey stop, her kayak sending up a wave of water over the elven boy that had him cursing at a laughing Isabela.

Merrill laughed and cheered and clapped, but somewhere in the process, her paddle managed to slip from hands and into the lake.

Lurching to the side, she managed to grab hold of it before it sank to the depths, but the kayak didn’t stop moving.

Oh. Oh no.

It was a wash of the cool water, flooding her mouth and nose and lungs as she cried out, frantically trying to twist free from the kayak, attempting to reach the surface while trapped beneath. Her life vest served to bob her body upwards, back into the kayak above her over and over again.

Firm arms around her waist pulled her down, and Merrill thrashed against them. She couldn’t give in to whatever this was trying to drag her to the depths.

Merrill coughed and choked as her head broke the surface, gulping in burning lungfuls of air. She clung trembling to her rescuer’s side, uncaring of the somewhat infantile picture she likely made, looking like a drowned rat as she surely did.

There were people gathered around them as they reached the pebbled bank, heavy towel already damp with humidity immediately settled over Merrill’s shoulders.

When she’d scrubbed the lake water from her eyes, Isabela was there, nearly crouched over Merrill with their faces mere inches apart.

“Kitten,” Bela said softly, face disapproving. “Do you know how to swim?”

Merrill bit her lip, shaking her head.

“And you went kayaking anyways?”

She nodded.

In the span of the next breath, Isabela had stood and began walking away, accepting the towel offered.

Merrill watched her go, the tears beading at her eyes unremarked on.

* * *

The heat was usually unbearable, but be it the water soaking her through or the possibility that it was actually a cool evening, Merrill thought it was almost pleasant beside the fire.

She had a skewer shoved into the flames, marshmallow on its end catching again.

Merrill jerked it close, blowing until only the black blistered sugar remained. She groaned. The whole other half of the marshmallow was still white, barely even melty. She tried shoving it back in, only to watch as the marshmallow had decided it’d had enough and elected to fall into the fire. It seemed she really couldn’t do anything right.

“Here,” a gentle voice said, making Merrill turn.

It was Isabela, now in a tank top and denim shorts, holding out the half-gone bag of jumbo marshmallows.

Merrill gave a meek smile of thanks, sliding the marshmallow onto the tip of the skewer. Isabela took up residency on the log beside Merrill, guiding her hands with her own.

“You want to get it near the coals,” Isabela murmured, soft voice in her ear making Merrill shiver. “Just out of reach of the flames, but where it still burns.”

Merrill nodded, and then Isabela’s hands left hers.

She turned the marshmallow slowly, gradually, extracting at last a marshmallow colored golden brown. When she turned to show Isabela, the Rivaini girl held in offering a pair of graham crackers with some of the flexible chocolate. Obediently, Merrill set the marshmallow within and slid the skewer out.

“I’ve never had a s’more before.” Merrill admitted, biting into the treat.

A moment later, she widened her eyes and let out an agreeable noise.

It was sticky, and the chocolate was bitter with having been melted and frozen more than once, but it was the best thing Merrill had ever tasted.

Even sweeter, however, was the soft kiss Isabela pressed to the corner of her lips to dab away the melty marshmallow goo accumulating there.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much to Norangutan, who wanted some fluffy slice of life between these two wonderful ladies. Happy pride everyone!


End file.
